In general, an automobile tire is manufactured by a vulcanization process using a predetermined mold. In the process of forming a tire, it is likely to be out of weight balance of the tire, i.e., there inevitably occurs irregular distribution of the tire weight.
Such weight imbalance of the tire causes chassis vibrations during its rapid rotation to decrease automobile ride comfort. Moreover, when the vibration is too excessive or continuously generated for an extended period of time, fatigue is continuously applied to the chassis, and therefore, gaps or cracks occur between or from various parts to reduce lifespan and lower steering stability of the automobile, thereby increasing the risk of being involved in a car accident.
In order to solve the above problems, there was proposed a wheel balance weight having an appropriate weight and installed at a symmetrical point where weight imbalance of the tire is compensated to uniformly maintain weight distribution of the tire.
More specifically, an automobile tire in a tubeless shape is installed around a wheel coupled with an axle and filled with the air. At this time, a wheel balance weight may be installed at an appropriate position between a tire bead part and a rim of the wheel, to thereby compensate imbalance of the tire weight.
The wheel balance weight is generally formed of lead having a relatively large specific gravity. However, such a wheel balance weight formed of lead may cause environmental contamination problems. For this reason, the balance weight distributed in recent years is manufactured by using soft steel and so on.
In the above process, the conventional wheel balance weight is mainly mounted in a clip or adhesive manner using a double-sided tape. For example, in case of using a clip type balance weight, the balance weight is coupled to an appropriate position between the tire bead part and the rim of the wheel in a press-fit manner.
Specifically, the clip type balance weight has a weight holder provided with a hook part that has a “C” shaped end part press-fitted onto the rim of a wheel, and a weight element attached to a gripping part formed at the other end part of the weight holder for counterbalancing the weight imbalance of the tire.
In this structure, the weight element may be riveted or gripped on the gripping part.
However, when the weight element and the gripping part are riveted together, the number of processes required increases and the entire coupling between them is not stable enough. In addition, defects frequently occur during the riveting process and the weight element may be separated from the gripping part of the weight holder in use, thereby lowering reliability of the product.
Moreover, when the weight element is gripped by the gripping part of the weight holder, the weight element is fixedly inserted into the gripping part, which is formed by bending a lower end of the weight holder to a certain length in an arc shape through a predetermined bending process. In this case, since there is no means for fixing the weight element in the gripping part, the weight element may be readily moved in an axial direction thereof due to vibrations during rapid rotation of the tire or may even be separated from the gripping part.
Furthermore, there is no means for suppressing relative movement between the hook part and the gripping part of the weight holder, and the rim and the weight element corresponding thereto. For this reason, the weight holder may be separated from the rim due to vibrations during rapid rotation of the tire or the weight element may be rotated in the gripping part in a rotational direction thereof.